Middle East

Struggle for worker’s unity, peace and social justice more important
than ever

The conservative AK Party won a decisive majority in Sunday’s general
election, winning 315 seats in the 550 seat parliament (49.3%). The main
capitalist opposition, the CHP, only slightly increased its vote since
the June elections while the far-right MHP’s share fell from 16% to 12%,
losing out to the AKP.

The AKP’s menacing nationalist rhetoric and brutal military campaign
against the Kurds undoubtedly managed to attract significant votes from
a layer of MHP supporters.

The pro-Kurdish HDP (People’s Democratic Party), whose June election
vote had been boosted by votes from young, radical Turks, also lost out
with 21 fewer MPs, just crossing the undemocratic 10% threshold needed
to secure seats in parliament.

The loss of support for the HDP will be a disappointment for the left,
but many will rightly question the idea of ‘free elections’ taking place
when Kurdish towns and villages have been under military siege. Many HDP
supporters have been arrested in the last few months, and HDP offices
have been physically targeted by mobs associated with the AKP and the
MHP.

This result is a boost to President Erdogan but not enough to allow him
to press ahead with changes to the Turkish constitution which would have
consolidated the powers of the presidency.

The election was held against a backdrop of massive scaremongering,
rampant violence and clampdown on opposition voices - including
interference by the president in the run up to polling day, against the
constitution he is supposed to uphold.

Prior to the election there were rumours, emanating from a whistleblower
from within the government, that the AKP had installed its own
supporters in position to rig the ballot results.

Growing reports of electoral fraud and polling disruption are now
emerging, especially from the Kurdish areas where the HDP secured high
votes in the June election. Various intimidation tactics were directed
at voters, critical journalists and election observers. Some
international electoral observers were taken away by the police, and
polling stations closed down or deprived of access by the army. In a
number of areas ballots disappeared, while in Izmir, for example, there
were 700,000 more votes than the number of registered voters!

Just days before the election Koza Ipek Holdings group, which publishes
media linked to opponents of Erdogan, was taken over and senior editors
replaced by AKP supporters in both papers and TV channels. The Turkish
Bar Association condemned these measures as unconstitutional.

Undoubtedly these actions and the general climate of crisis helped to
secure the AKP’s victory on Sunday.The losses by the HDP will also have
been affected by its decision to cancel planned rallies following the
bomb attack in Ankara on 10 October.

All these factors contributed to a totally biased election in which the
voices of the opposition could hardly be heard, while the voices of the
ruling party were magnified.

The election result itself will not mask the deep divisions within the
ruling class, reflected not only in the existence of both the AKP and
its more secular rival the CHP but also in the uneasy balance of power
between president Erdogan and prime minister Davutoglu.

All three of the opposition parties will be examining these election
results for evidence of fraud, including the loss of over 650,000 votes
from the voters’ lists between the June and November polls and the
appearance of over 400,000 new voters onto those lists. These anomalies
appear to be concentrated in districts where the margins between the
main two parties were close back in June.

For the organised working class in the trade unions this election came
at a time when they are gaining in confidence. The two-day protest
general strike immediately following the October bombings in Ankara
(blamed squarely on the AKP’s policies), indicates the potential power
of united working class action. Unfortunately, this strike was not
followed up by any call to escalate the mobilisation, leaving the
movement without a clear strategy, and the AKP to dominate the public
discourse again in the run-up to the election.

The general strike came after a sustained period of workers’ struggle.
In May 2014, following a mining disaster, workers struck to protest
against the appalling safety record of Turkish mine bosses.

In May 2015 a strike at the Renault factory triggered action at other
factories in Turkey’s industrial heartland. This in spite of extremely
harsh anti-union laws in Turkey where “authorised unions” frequently
fail to protect workers’ interests resulting in Turkey having the lowest
proportion of unionised workers in the OECD (the ‘developed countries’).
Turkey has even seen doctors on strike, in May 2015, protesting against
excessive workloads.

Socialists in Turkey organised around Socyalist Alternatif will continue
to campaign for worker’s unity and for an independent mass workers
party, of which the HDP could potentially provide a stepping stone - if
it turns towards workers from all communities with a bold program of
action and democratise its internal structures.

Such a party should embrace a socialist programme of public ownership
and democratic workers’ control of major industries; the right of
self-determination for the Kurdish people and an end to the attacks on
Kurdish national rights under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Further analysis on Turkey’s elections will be published on
socialistworld.net in the coming days.